Mermaid's Fishing Blog

Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Got to the fishery at 6.45 and reported in for breakfast, and whilst the bacon sizzled, myself and a few taking part chose the swims on the specimen lake and set about pegging them out.

After breakfast, the draw took place at 8am and I drew the peg on the left hand side of the island. The all in was called at 9.30am and after casting out my carp rod on my left into 7ft depth of open water on a large method feeder, I concentrated my efforts fishing a quivertip on my right hand rod within two foot of the island margin.

During the day, I struggled and the angler across the island from me seemed to be pulling them out.

On the island, all I was getting was roach, albeit, a good stamp of fish, but the carp seemed to have none of it. On my left hand rod I had caught a few carp and lost a very big cat at the net, but I went into the darkness only having caught about 60lb of fish including a catfish of 10lb, but the angler across the lake from me having well in excess of 130lb.

Disaster struck when I went to turn on my headlamp which I had tested and put new batteries in only the day before, only to find it now didn't work. I lost the next half a hour trying to find an angler on the lake who had a spare. Luckily, someone had one and very kindly lent it to me.

Now that I could see, I attached a nightlight to my feeder tip and decided a change needed to be made, but what?...

I decided to come away from the island margin, and cast out the large method feeder into open water on my right, and to cast my feeder rod over to the left on the spot where I had been casting the large method feeder. The change made the difference and I started catching carp on the quivertip almost immediately and through the night I set about catching 170lb of carp between 10pm and 5am.

As soon as the dawn broke and the sun began to rise the swim began to slow down but it seemed that a busy night seeing me repeatedly visiting the scales, meant that I ended up winning the match weighing in 238lb and the guy over the lake from me weighed in at 221lb for second place.

I caught a catfish on Saturday 18th August using a quivertip using 6lb line and a size 16 hook. The fish was my third and as it turned out, my final cast of the day.

The fish emptied my spool of 100 mtr line all but for a few turns at the height of the fight, and after an arm wrenching fight that saw my Drennan 11ft Method Feeder rod all but bend round to the handle, the rod broke in 2 places on the top section of the rod when I had to force the issue to get it into the net.

Although I have caught larger catfish previously when being specifically targeted, my record being 209lb for a catfish caught in Spain a few years ago, (reported in Anglers Mail at the time,) I think this must rate as highly as Saturday's capture was made on such light tackle.As the capture was made on my mum's birthday, I've named it Mary in her honour!

Monday, 18 April 2011

Had a great days fishing with Bob Nudd at the beginning of the month at Tingrith fishery.

Fished the Fringe lake fishing the pole at about 13 metres putting in a pole cup or 4mm pellets with a few 6mm pellets and fed these into the swim every 30 minutes.

Hook size 16 Kamasan B911 using a Preston 4x14 pole float. For bait I used a size 6mm Ringers expander pellet which I had pumped using gelatine and Marmite. The gelatine to make pellet stay on the hook better and the Marmite to provide more pulling power!

Later in the session I fished shallow using a Korum blob kept in place with a size 8 Stotz and agin using a 6mm pellet on the hook. Fishing about 18 inches deep and firing in about 6 pellets every few seconds fish were quickly encouraged up in the water to feed.

The day ended and when the keepnet was hauled out of the water Bob estimated that I had about 130lb of fish in the net!

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

I had a very busy day on Saturday 20th June this year taking part in the first 12 hour match held on Browning Tingrith's Fringe Lake.

Normal fishery rules applied with weigh-ins every 4 hours.

Although I had broken both tib and fib at the ankle back in January which gave me little chance to practice on my new pole, I decided that what the heck, the pole would be my chosen means of attack. I drew Peg 9 which was bordered on each side by reeds. Due to my inexperience fishing the pole I was very concerned and didn't fancy my chances in keeping the carp out of the reeds if I was lucky to hook one so I decided I would fish very shallow at 14mtrs.

I had read somewhere the trick of tying a pellet to a hair and varnishing it so that rather than constantly changing bait, the varnished pellet would allow the same rig to catch many fish and keep the baited line in the water longer.

My second line of attack was to fish further over to my right past the reeds to the vacant swim and drop bait just under the unused platform. As the whistle blew for the all in, I emptied a pole cup of 6mm GOT Bait pellets and another cup made up of half and half small cubed luncheon meat and sweetcorn.

I then went out at 14mtrs with a shallow rig of 18 inches deep using a Preston Durafloat 10 shot below with a couple of size 10 Stotz to a 6lb Drennan mainline attached loop to loop to a 5lb Drennan hooklink tied to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hair rigged with 6mm varnished GOT Baits 6mm pellet.

Using a catapult I fired out around 10 - 12 GOT Baits 6mm pellets every 15 seconds and after 20 minutes the float started to show signs fish nosing a the bait, a few seconds later, and the float buried to the first crucian of the day. As I fought and played each fish to the net I continued to fire out pellets to keep the fish feeding and preoccupied in the swim. I also continued regularly to feed the swim to my right by the vacant platform.

At the first weigh in I was the last swim to go to the scales and weighed in 90lbs.

Interestingly the second weights weren’t affected a great deal by the emptying of the nets after the first 4 hours. The last 4 hours saw a change in the carp coming on in the evening session to the margin. The work of the regular baiting to the vacant swim platform paid dividends seeing carp to 8lb making their way to the net.

My winning weight was 181lb 12oz approx, 80lb of which were crucians and silver fish with the rest carp, all caught on a pole using pellet at 14 mts and GOT Baits Atomic Paste wrapped round luncheon meat in the margin

Runner up was Ricky Stone of Finchley, North London, with 130lb 5oz of roach, rudd & crucians up in the water. A close third was to Pip Bolam, also of Bedford with 103.12 oz in peg 8 and the 4th place went to Vic Jackson with 103lb exactly!The 12 gruelling hours were followed by a very welcome BBQ and refreshments.

Monday, 16 March 2009

Back in January on a bright Sunday morning following a severe frost I decided it was a little too dangerous to go fishing on the slippery riverbanks and so I opted to go for a healthy walk instead.

No more than a quarter of an hour after setting off on a walk at a local beauty spot Sundon Hills I had climbed over a stile and walked down a small hill and slipped towards the bottom and my right leg collapsed underneath me with a sickening crack.

After a few moments I decided to crawl back up the embankment towards the stile and tried to see if I could manage to get in a position to climb back over it. The pain unfortunately ruled out that option out before I could try to pull myself up.

Later at the hospital after being rescued by paramedics it transpired I had snapped the tibia and fibia right across at the ankle and was destined to spend 3 months in plaster and away from fishing.

However, where there's a will, there's a way and due to the help of my husband and with the use of a wheelchair I managed to get back out to the lakes whilst my leg was still in plaster.

Patience was at last rewarded and although the pike caught was pretty small it must be said and was caught when reeling in after a last cast, it was just great to be back outside once more.

I don’t normally fish with a pole as a rule but decided to give it a go as I like the simplicity and precision of the discipline.

I set up, plumbed up, and caught a few small carp and managed to get myself a bit of a rhythm going regards feeding, shipping out etc. and I was very pleased at how things were progressing and felt that I was really getting the hang of this pole fishing lark.

Remembering what I had been taught by the fishery bailiff (to put my index finger into the second section of the pole to ensure there was no grit in the top 2 before inserting the third section and thus avoiding a sandpaper effect ruining the snug fit of the sections.) Fine no problem until I decided to smear the pellets I was using with Marmite ad I had caught a few carp before using this tactic.

I smeared the pellet and and let the baited line sit in the margin where a good part of my bait had ended up after a mad fit of sneezing earlier and was just about the insert my index finger inside the pole to clean the inside of grit, but realised it might not be a good idea as it was still covered in Marmite, and that this might cause the sections to stick. (I have enough problems getting the lid off when my lads over-tighten and the screw thread on the jar at home when it becomes stuck to the jar better than super glue!.)

In my mind I praised myself for my quick thinking and at once inserted my middle finger instead. Then I was going to catch one more fish and then take a much needed loo break. Just then disaster struck or perhaps more appropriately stuck!

I couldn’t get my bloody finger out! my knuckle was stuck firm in the ruddy pole section and do as I could it just would'nt budge!!!!

I was on my own, I'd got this bleedin' long length of carbon stuck fast on my finger, I needed the loo, my mobile phone was yards away and I couldn't move to get it without showing the world my plight, (one bloke I think realised what was going on but to save my blushes I kept pretending to be looking for something in my tackle box until he looked away and frantically again I'd resume my pulling and yanking!) I finally managed to grab hold of my phone but my hand wet with sweat and slime from the last capture could not hold it properly and the phone slipped from my grasp splashing loudly as it plopped into the lake. Kylie’s dulcet ringtone of ‘I should be so lucky’ would alas never be heard again. The ducks on the lake seemed to find the whole episode highly amusing and appeared to be laughing loudly at my expense.

I was getting seriously worried by this point as I had no contingency plan now as I had no means of cutting off the offending pole if the worse came to the worse, as if I trod on the pole to release my trapped digit, I'd end up breaking my finger not to mention the bank, and I certainly couldn't drive with a 10' long bloody finger nail!!! and then, just then when I thought things couldn’t get much worse, my float dipped abruptly under the water and the biggest carp of the day decided to fall for my Marmite pellet!

For a good few minutes (I know it doesn't sound that long to you but promise me it felt like a ruddy eternity) the pole refused to budge from my finger despite the angry lunges of the hard fighting fish attached as fast as I was to the other end of the pole!!. Why on earth hadn’t I just kept to fishing with rod and line or was back at home at the ironing board?!?

Luckily, at the point when I was just about to blow the whistle for help, I noticed the extra bag of hempI had brought with me which was still frozen solid waiting at my feet and an old physics lesson popped into my head and I so I placed this on my hand to try to reduce the heat and thus the swelling on my finger. After what seemed to be long enough to have had time to read War and Peace at least 3 times over, my hand had cooled sufficiently for my finger to come free from the section.

Amazingly and fortunately for me the carp had decided to try to hide its embarrasment also and sulked in the tree roots along the margin from my swim instead of heading for the sanctuary of the centre or other side of the lake and so this allowed me to time to play the fish properly and eventually landed a beautifully carp.

Tuesday, 13 January 2009

Decided not to get up too early so it was a bit of a surprise when we got to a nearby lake at around 9.30am on perfect piking conditions on a Sunday morning that our favorite swims were still available.

The conditions were overcast with a light ripple on the water and the day was set fair with a high of 12 degrees expected.

A few days previously I had an idea of mincing up some of the deadbaits and freezing them into small balls mixed with oils and brown crumb to use as a groundbait for the pike.

I threw out a couple of 'pike bombs' into the margin and far bank and before long we had the rods out. Rigs were simple one was using a deadbait roach on a deadbait pencil float and a normal 2 semi-barbed treble rig the other was again a deadbait pencil cast further out near the far bank but on this rod I was fishing a lamprey 'kebab rig' using 1 large hook and 5 chunks of very bloody lamprey on long hair.

We had fished for a few hours when the far margin float bobbed slightly and moved sideways by no more than a few inches. I watched the float carefully and once again the float bobbed before making a more determined sideways motion. I picked up the rod, wound down slowly and then hit it. All hell then broke loose and after a healthy fight I managed to land a rather fiesty 15lb pike.

The bites continued and in the end I had 6 pike between 8lb - 15lb in weight

Chestnut Fishery, Biggleswade

I had decided to pop down to the fishery at Langford (just outside Biggleswade) and try out some home made method mix consisting of ground up Vitalin, grilled and crushed hemp, blended sweetcorn, liquidised prawns, a tin of tuna flakes and brown crumb to which the hemp water and juice from the prawns, tuna and sweetcorn had been added.

For the hookbait I was going to use strawberry sweetcorn which had been prepared a few days earlier by adding half a teaspoon of red food colourant and half a teaspoon of strawberry food flavouring both of which were bought at the local supermarket.

When we arrived at the fishery at about mid morning and set up at adjacent swims to the left hand side of the lake facing the island on swims 28 & 29.

The rig I was using consisted of a small Fox method feeder and a 3" hooklink of with a size 14 Kamasan Animal barbless hook topped with a single grain of home made strawberry flavoured sweetcorn.

The home made method mix was pressed onto the frame of the Fox method feeder to just cover its ribs and a small indent is then made into the mix so that the baited hook can be placed on the feeder before a loose covering of the mix is place on top.

I cast within a few feet of the island and left each cast for around 5 minutes before recasting. The repeated casting achieves 2 things; firstly it acts as a dinner gong to the fish to encourage and attract them into the swim and secondly to build up a good bed of fish retaining bait.

After about 10 minutes I had a few small knocks on the quivertip followed by a violent wrap round with the first fish of the day doing its best to escape.

After a spirited fight a mirror carp of around 8lb was in the landing net.

This continued seeing 16 carp between 5 - 8lb being banked during the session before it was time to pack up and compare notes over a few drinks at the pub on the way home.

Bait Tip! - Method Mix

For those of you who have never heard of Vitalin, it is a muesli-like dried dog food which is available from most pet stores and is made up from dried wheat and maize and contains meat and marrowbone.

Vitalin ground down in a coffee grinder is a major ingredient of a home made method mix.

To the Vitalin, I add white crumb, a tin of tuna flakes, liquidized sweetcorn, liquidized prawns, grilled and crushed hemp, blended hemp and the cooking water from the hemp together with tuna and prawn juices and added water if necessary.

I mix the method mix the day before fishing and add extra water at the bankside as necessary.

Manor Farm - Trout Fishing

A friend kindly booked me up for a trout fishing day at Manor Farm fishery at Biggleswade and we met our instructor early morning who took us through the rudiments of fly fishing, lines, rods, knots and flies. That done the business of learning to cast got underway.

In order to prevent winding back in a finding some fellas wig or eyeball attached our instructor tipped the leader with red wool rather than a fly itself and took us out onto the grassy banks of the lake to practice casting on the grass. It certainly wasn't as easy as others made it look!

I had always thought that fly anglers were a really cool bunch wearing both hats and dark glasses but this illusion was shattered when we were informed that itwas in fact for the sake of safety in order to dodge the danger of flying hooks but also as the dark glasses were in fact polaroids it allowed fly fishermen to see through the waters surface to find any evidence of ther quarry.

What I had not realised until the day was that one of the major differences between fly fishing is the fly line itself. With normal coarse fishing at some point in the coarse set up is some form of shotting or weight to enable the casting, in fly fishing the only weigh is the flyline itself.

The fly line is different to normal fishing lines not the same thickness from one end to the other but is in fact shaped and the line was using was what they call a weight forward line enabling a slightly easier cast as the most of the weight of the line is situated closer to the leader.

The instructor showed us the rolling cast and the overhead cast but in my inexperienced hands it really looked like a case of angling meets bondage!

After a slight improvement in our casting technique we were deemed to be safe enough for changing the red wool for a green Montana fly and sent off to whip the water to a foam.

The fly was to be fished below the water as opposed to a dry fly which sits on the surface film of the water.

To my utter amazement on the third swim I had tried to ruin with my ham-fisted efforts both the distance of my cast had improved slightly and I had managed to get the timing of my retrieve to the fishes satisfaction which was endorsed by a flying take by a pristine 3lb rainbow trout.

After dispatching the fish I cast out again and had another follow which resulted in an aborted take a few yards out from the bank. I quickly recast and slowed my retrieve everso slightly and this time the take was more determined with another rainbow making its way to the net and on its way to the dinner table.

The day was extremely enjoyable and you may well wonder how the fish tasted. Well, I was informed they tasted incredible but I didn't get a chance to taste them as when I was gutting and preparing them my mother-in-law came round and she was so animated about them as being her favourite fish and how wonderful they would no doubt taste being so fresh that it would have felt rude to have eaten them myself. She told me they were absolutely fantastic with a few herbs and a slice of lemon!